How It Works. Pending some voice work, Daniel MacIvor’s play is an excellent production at the Gladstone Stage

David Whiteley (Al) and Michelle LeBlanc (Christine). Photo Andrew Alexander.

Plosive Theatre’s version of How it Works, by award winning writer Daniel MacIvor, whose plays often appear straightforward but are usually loaded with structural traps at all levels, is an admiral production by a company that has given us some of the best and the worst theatre in Ottawa! This time, director Stewart Matthews has done meticulous work with an impeccable cast and it all comes together in the most satisfying way.

I must say however that opening night began with an unfortunate performance by Michelle LeBlanc as the narrative voice of the prologue. I lost most of what she said! This important moment that explains the title and sets up the multiple threads of the play that leave many clues to subsequent events, was marred by the actress’ diction and rhythm. She spoke too quickly, she mumbled and slurred and this continued through most of the first act when she appears as Christine, the beer drinking lady from the south who first meets Al in a bar. I attribute all this to opening night nerves because during the second part of the evening she was clearly understandable to the point where her important revelation near the end, spoken both as an interior monologue and as a confession to the rebellious daughter Brooke, was the most powerful moment of the evening. Thus we know that Mme LeBlanc can do better. Let’s hope that it all works out for the rest of the run.

MacIvor’s characters are clearly drawn. A policeman (David Whitely) and his ex-wife Donna (Geneviève Sirois) find themselves trying to deal with Brooke ((Hannah Kaya) a daughter whom they can no longer control. Each of the parents is trying to get on with their own lives, meeting people, picking up the pieces of a broken marriage that has left them slightly lost in the world, and in this process, Brooke always appears to be a loose canon, a disturbed young girl whom they cannot fathom, who baffles them and brings out all their own shortcomings. Brooke herself is sinking deeper and deeper into self-destructive behaviour, running with an unsavoury crowd, using drugs and leaving her parents in despair. As happens in Pinter’s theatre…an outsider arrives and completely changes the dynamics of all these relationships. That outsider is Christine who comes from the south, who is of a different social class, and who brings in both annoying and refreshing behaviour that will help solve the family problem.

Stewart Matthews. Photo: Barbara Gray

If this were as clearcut at it appears, How it works might have been a series of clichés but the author steps back, and shows us how this all plays out as a performance where the script weaves multiple parts of a narrative web that picks up on clues dropped all though the play. Each character has his /her own story which reveals the relationships with the other characters, and it’s the telling of all these individual stories, with the help of MacIvor’s dramatic clues, that becomes the central dynamic here as the stories interact and clarify each other. Curiously enough, it isn’t the details of the disturbing deeds, that are central but rather the whole process of being able to listen, to understand and to finally have the courage to say what one has repressed, to capture one’s own story, to accept one’s inner voice which is so difficult for all of them. MacIvor’s play is a recipe for therapy of a sort. And as the stories accumulate we quickly realise that there is one story that is not being told, one narrative that appears to be hidden. Brooke is opaque. She pouts, she looks annoyed, she tries to shock, to resist, she tells nothing, she watches her mother and tries to get closer to her father but the parents are not able to answer her need for this closeness. There are flashbacks to the happier days of the marriage showing that the parents never really knew how to listen to their daughter. We are able to pick up all the clues if we listen closely and we quickly see how Brooke manipulates them both so they will not get too close to her and learn all her secrets. Something has to emerge from this game of hide and seek between Brooke and her parents, and it finally comes when Christine steps in to “hang out” with the girl, because she senses what is wrong.

Stewart Matthews’ set and stage work were eye-catching, smoothly done and extremely effective. The short scenes that shift us from Al’s house to the bar, to Donna’s house to multiple other places are done rapidly as the actors take part in rolling the panels around, constructing narrow hallways that allow the actors to pass through the walls as it were and suddenly appear in a new space. In fact the actors themselves step back and join the narrator who transforms the whole piece into a form of mise en abime, consciously foregrounding the fact that this is a theatrical event that they are trying to work out themselves. A moving door is always in view, supplying the escape route for those who can no longer take it, in most cases the angry Brooke who constantly needs to remove herself. The scenes are also accompanied by Matthews’ excellent choice of contemporary pop music which captures the various moods of each encounter.

If we assume that the garbled first act of Michelle LeBlanc won’t happen again, her performance was promising and extremely intense at that pivotal moment in the second act. David Whiteley is very good as the generous but exasperated father who is looking for a new partner,yet who still seems to harbour feelings for his ex-wife in spite of what he says. However, as a cop  he does not bring out that  authoritative side of his nature that sets him up in such an ambiguously emotional situation. Geneviève Sirois shows us a nervous, high strung wife and mother who cannot let her daughter into the depths of her own soul.   Hannah Kaya as young Brooke is very powerful as the young, rebellious but ultimately highly sensitive daughter. Her angry stare, the way she flings her body around and interjects her annoying remarks is tinged with real revolt. We don’t hear her reactions to Christine’s important monologue in Act two because Brooke responds by trying to leave the room. That was an excellent way of assuring the authenticity of her performance and her character. Something is happening within her. We can only guess what it is and her reaction is just as much a comment on the different means of alienation that MacIvor slips into his play, as it is to the way the character reacts to his/her own story. He makes us question everything…we are always asking why…..

However, clues early on in the play tell us exactly what to watch for and suggest that MacIvor is not looking for a shocking scenario. He is pitting the character’ stories against each other to see how they fore ground each other on stage while, retaining a tightly orchestrated emotional atmosphere within that consciously artificial world of the stage which the director has captured in a most intelligent way.

Stewart Matthews and his crew have shown much respect for MacIvor’s text, they have heightened the theatrical elements of the script and created a performance that is certainly worth seeing.

How it Works plays at The Gladstone until October 20. Call 613-233-GLAD for tickets.

HOW IT WORKS

By Daniel MacIvor

Directed by Stewart Matthews

A Production of Plosive Theatre

Set and Sound design: Stewart Matthews

Costumes: Anna Lindgren

Lighting: David Magladry

CAST:

Christine: Michelle LeBlanc

Al: David Whiteley

Brooke: Hannah Kaya

Donna: Geneviève Sirois